Wheat Feels March Heat

Record-shattering temperatures in March and April reduce wheat yield across North India

- Rohini Krishnamurthy, Shagun, Vivek Mishra, Mandeep Punia

AMIT PUNIA is in distress. The 24-year-old farmer from Khudan village in Haryana's Jhajjar district says above-normal rains in January and record-shattering temperatures in March have reduced his wheat yield by almost 60 per cent compared to 2021. “In January, when the wheat spikes (which bear the grains) developed, part of my crop in low-lying areas perished after remaining submerged for several days, says Punia, who owns 3 hectares (ha) and took another 8 ha on lease this year for ₹6 lakh. The remaining crop was battered by extreme temperatures in March. The losses accompany a spike in the prices of diesel, manure, seeds and spray. It has become difficult to meet our inputs cost, he says.

Like Punia, most wheat-growing farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have experienced losses this year. Sandeep Singh, a farmer from Balla village in Karnal, says the yield has dropped by 20-30 per cent. “I saw such a low yield for the first a time ever. Every farmer is vulnerable here,” says Bittu Singh, owner of a thresher machine in Chandpur village in Punjab's Mohali district.

Farmers are also facing difficulties in getting the minimum support price (MSP) for their produce because of the high share of shrivelled grains. On April 13, 2022, the Centre, on the insistence of the Punjab government, said it would revise its wheat procurement norms for shrivelled grains. This year, the share of shrivelled grain in the total produce has reached 12-20 per cent, as per the Food Corporation of India, as against the usual 6 per per cent.

UNUSUAL MARCH